Cabin of Peter the Great

This site is also known as "The first Palace of Peter the Great" or "The Red Mansion" (rus. - Krasnye Khoromy).

The Cabin of Peter the Great is the first construction to be built in St. Petersburg, summer residence of the Tsar during 1703-1708. This small wooden house covers 60 square meters and was built by soldiers-carpenters in only three days near the Trinity square. Here on the 15th of May was the celebration of the lands joining and the foundation of the new city.

In 1930, the Cabin of Peter I was assigned a status of historical and memorial museum. During the Great Patriotic War the cabin has been closed. Its windows and doors boarded up, nailed them down with the veneer sheets and oil-painted grey to hide it to the best possible extent. The guards were responsible for the maintenance of the museum.

Since 1930 in The Cabin of Peter I have been opened a museum. Nowadays there is an exposition of the memorial belongings of Peter the Great: uniform robe made of red woolen cloth; a pipe of boxwood with agate insets (a present from A. Menshikov); a cane in Oriental style covered with a sea skate skin with a japanned handle decorated with gilt; a cast of Peter's hand copied from the print made at the ironworks in Lipetsk (1707); a wherry boat built by Peter himself which he used to cross the Neva river. Near the table there is an armchair made of a pear tree wood. A legend says that it was Peter I who made it.